novelraw Chapter 109: 14:00 to 18:00
Chapter 109: 14:00 to 18:00
Lu Li gripped the doorknob and pushed gently.
The wooden door, as if it had fused with the bizarre staircase, refused to budge. Even when he pressed his ear against the wood, he heard nothing.
It seemed he had managed to avoid the "game" at 14:00.
Lu Li pulled his gaze away from the door and looked down.
The blood-red walls had grown even more saturated, pulsing with an unsettling light.
The writing had changed. It was different from what he had seen before.
Scraps of phrases were scattered across the wall. At first glance, they seemed connected, but any attempt to piece them together resulted in nonsensical sentences.
[Food][Will][Knowledge][New][More][Give][Life][Wealth][Strength][Repulsive][They]
Fortunately, this was exactly Lu Li's sort of puzzle.
He silently scanned the entire wall, committing the fragments to memory, and began to assemble them like pieces of a puzzle...[Knowledge is repulsive, but it is your ally. It will make you stronger, wiser, and help you gain an edge.]
[Food offers new sensations. It is essential for survival, but unchecked gluttony can easily ruin a life. In any case, you must eat before you continue on your way.]
Just like the previous time-based clues, these fragments, once pieced together, formed bizarre warnings.
By connecting the keywords from these two phrases with the ones he’d found on the floors above, Lu Li formed a clearer picture: at noon, a boy resisted the temptation of laughter and his friends' calls to study, and then, feeling hungry, decided he needed to eat...
It seemed utterly disconnected from the nightmare around him, yet it was a perfect reflection of what was happening to Lu Li.
The strange staircase was steeped in mystery. With the path behind him cut off, Lu Li could only continue downward until he reached the very end.
Or until he died on one of the landings.
Lu Li steeled himself and resumed his descent.
Tap... tap... tap...
A faint, cool breeze of unknown origin drifted up the stairwell. It was neither damp nor foul.
The wind rustled through Lu Li’s tousled black hair. He wondered. When was the next study time? 14:30? Or 15:00? Or should he eat first?
Tap...
Reaching the 1430th floor, Lu Li paused for a few seconds. Nothing happened.
Which meant it would be the next one...
Lu Li resumed his descent down the endless staircase.
He stopped on the 1500th floor.
A rustle...
From around the bend below, the sound of countless writhing limbs echoed up the stairs, approaching with terrifying speed!
They were tall, slender, indescribable creatures. They stood two to three meters high, yet were no wider than the palm of a hand. Strange, pale faces with fixed smiles were embedded in the center of their twisting bodies. With every step they took, their long bodies swayed from side to side, bumping against the walls and each other as if they were about to topple over.
Writhing like strands of spaghetti, they swarmed together, surging rapidly toward Lu Li!
Just as the clue had said, this "knowledge" was repulsive.
And yet, they were apparently supposed to help him—at least, that’s what the deciphered clue claimed.
Of course, the clue could have been a lie, designed to mislead him, but that made little sense. If the goal was deception, the staircase could have provided false information from the start.
In the blink of an eye, the ghastly, slender beings reached the 1500th floor and swarmed around Lu Li, boxing him in.
Lu Li raised his arms, forgoing his powers and simply shielding himself from the deluge of pale, smiling faces that rained down on him.
As one of the creatures brushed against his face, Lu Li covered his head with his hands, offering only silent resistance.
Viewed through the lens of the clues, Lu Li's actions resembled those of a boy reluctantly forcing himself to study.
The face of the creature that touched Lu Li’s cheek transformed. Its eyes narrowed, its lips curved into a smile, and its body began to dissolve into thin air. Another creature immediately squeezed forward to take its place.
Lu Li shielded himself from the flurry of touches, but it seemed the creatures didn’t need to touch his face to vanish. The ones that only made contact with his arms also changed their expressions. Their eyes rolled back, the corners of their mouths drooped, and their smiles twisted into masks of grief and rage as they, too, faded away.
Realizing this, Lu Li had an idea. He lowered his arms slightly, shielding only his face instead of his entire head.
Now, while some creatures still brushed against his arms and vanished with grimaces, the majority touched his head, smiled, and dissolved into the air.
One of the creatures touched the crown of Lu Li’s head. The contact was soft and painless. Its pale face broke into a wide smile, and then it vanished.
It was the last of the creatures.
Silence fell around Lu Li.
He lowered his arms. He was not covered in any repulsive slime, nor was there any foul odor.
After checking himself over and confirming he was unharmed, Lu Li continued down the stairs.
Nothing happened on the 1530th floor. Lu Li passed it and kept going.
The number 1600 came into view, and on the landing stood several tables laden with weapons and armor.
"Food... but in moderation," Lu Li muttered, recalling the clue from the wall, and stepped onto the 1600th floor.
Swords, broadswords, rapiers, daggers, maces.
Shields, heavy shields, helmets, bracers, chainmail.
The tables were covered in new armaments. Perhaps this was the "food" the clue had mentioned.
Lu Li picked up a short sword and, remaining silent, scanned his surroundings.
Nothing happened. He examined the metal sword closely.
The sword wasn’t overly heavy, and its blade was quite sharp. It was a real weapon, not a mere prop.
That meant enemies were waiting for him on the floors below...
Lu Li took the sword in his left hand and moved to the table of armor.
Just as he had with the sword, Lu Li took a round shield without hesitation—one large enough to cover his entire forearm—and tapped it lightly with his blade. The sound rang out.
His gaze fell upon a medieval-style helmet resting next to the shield.
A small weapon and a shield were practical for the narrow staircase, but with no room to retreat, a helmet and armor were just as vital.
Lu Li reached for the helmet, but black tentacles suddenly shot out from the eye slits, knocking his hand away.
Watching the tentacles slowly retract back into the helmet, Lu Li realized he wasn't allowed to take anything more.
The moment he pulled his hand back, the black tentacles, writhing like kelp, vanished back inside the helmet.
Ignoring the rest of the weapons and armor, Lu Li continued his descent, sword in his left hand and shield in his right.
He had nearly unraveled the mystery of the staircase.
He was now past the 1600th floor. Following the unwritten rule that there is always a lull before a major battle, the 1700th floor—five o'clock—likely held new dangers.
For example... a parent, checking up on his studies.